brrobert wrote:I had a Mobro years ago... like in the 90's. I don't remember much about it-- including whether there was a volute. I can't think of a Dobro with a volute, but I'm not really a dobro player. I sound bad enough with frets; playing with a slide makes me seasick. And sustain only prolongs my mistakes...
The aesthetics of the Bantar neck doesn't really look like Mobro necks that I've found online. The similarities are more with the Mosrite electric guitar necks. I can say that this Bantar neck feels like the necks from other Mosrite electric guitars that I've owned, and shares many similarities in construction. Was it a collaboration between the Mosrite luthiers and the Dopyera brothers? We just know that it was made in a time and place where they were co-existing. I read that the first Mobros were constructed in Gardena using many of the Dopyera parts on hand. I think the used to call these kind of things "floorsweep" guitars in the Gibson Kalamazoo factory.
I'm not very familiar with the Mobros either, but I have seen photos of one. And for the record of anyone else reading, yes, there's at least one 1970s version of a Mosrite Dobro that says "Mobro" on the headstock.
I'm not sure what to say about this Bantar, since it's such a rarity. You might ask Deke Dickerson, Eugene Moles, or Bob Shade about it. Maybe Ed Elliott might know something too, but he doesn't show up at the Mosrite pages on Facebook very often.
I think the term "floor-sweep" is fairly common, and I've used it too. There are more than a few weird Kays from the later 60s that I've seen with a mish-mash of parts that don't otherwise "belong" on individual examples of various instruments.
brrobert wrote:The reference I found to the headstock and a Mandolin scroll.... I think the design is meant to evoke the scroll in the upper bout of mandolin body, not the headstock. It is more abstract, I suppose. It was the late 60's after all!
There were some mandos with scroll headstocks, though. Here is one from a modern maker, but the older makers did that, too:
https://hirschguitars.com/models/mandol ... l-peghead/This old Regal kind of looks like the Bantar headstock. The owner is saying it is a smurf headstock:
https://www.tdpri.com/threads/regal-rev ... s.1141527/
Come to think of it, Bill Gruggett (who worked with Mosrite now and then) did have a habit of making Scroll Headstocks on numerous Stradette models. I don't have a photo of one of his handy to link, but Hallmark Guitars later made Stradettes. This one should do:

brrobert wrote:101Volts wrote:I should clarify, just in case I gave the wrong impression; I didn't mean that I have a Dobro - I don't. I'm not sure whether or not Mosrite Dobros have a Volute. When I said my 1966 Mosrite, I was referring to the one mentioned in my signature; a 1966 Ventures II of the second version under that name, which was shortly later re-named the Ventures Mark V.
That is a cool guitar! I had a beat Mark V years ago. I loved it. I'm envious.
Mine's beat, too, and it's mostly not original. The original finish is missing and these parts are not original: tuners, electronics, pickguard, pickups, bridge. I did replace them with parts from Ed Elliott (except the bridge - I swiped that off my 1976 Mosrite Brass Rail, and I stuck a Hallmark Bridge on the Brass Rail.)
- Austin